Zafar Adeel

Dr. Zafar Adeel is Director of the School of Sustainable Energy Engineering at SFU and serves as the Executive Director of SFU's Pacific Water Research Centre. He has over 30 years of experience in a broad range of environmental science and policy issues, including 18 years as a senior United Nations official focused on international development and research. From 2006 to 2016, he served as the Director, United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH).

He has held several international leadership roles: These include chairing UN-Water (a group of nearly 60 international organizations) from 2010 to 2012 and co-chairing the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment team of scientists that produced the global desertification synthesis in 2005. Dr. Adeel also led the development of a south-south network of scientists working in water-scarce regions, with a focus on rural and remote communities in Africa, Middle East and Asia. Through his editorial lead, this network has published eight books in the UNU Desertification Series.

His research focuses on the intersection of water security, technological innovation, and community-engaged research. He is also the Book Series Editor for Springer's “Water Security in a New World.”